Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for negotiating a secure device-to-device communication channel.
Description of the Related Technology
Secure platforms provide an architecture for deployment and management of secure applications running on computing devices. A secure application enables an enterprise to deploy sensitive data to the respective computing device, and to remotely manage the sensitive data in a secure manner. For example, such management may include remote deletion of the sensitive data in the event that the computing device is compromised or in the event that the user of the computing device leaves the employment of the enterprise.
Typically, the secure application also provides secure access to data and services provided by an enterprise network, such as enterprise e-mail services for storing, sending and receiving e-mail; enterprise file sharing services for storing and retrieving files; enterprise database services for accessing and modifying an enterprise database; enterprise Personal Information Management (PIM) services for accessing and modifying personal information such as contact lists, calendars and task lists; and other services including enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, field/support force automation, and consumer data content storage, etc.
At least some of the data managed by the secure application running on the mobile device is stored in encrypted format. The data maybe encrypted using methods as known in the art. For example, the encryption may employ “containerisation”, according to which the data is encrypted and “wrapped” in a container to which various access policies can be applied to control which users can access the data within the container. The access policies can for example be determined and varied if desired by a remote user, such as an administrator of an enterprise network.
An example of a secure platform which employs secure applications in this manner is the Good Dynamics™ mobile platform developed by Good Technology™ of Sunnyvale, Calif., United States.